260 THE BEASOX WHY. 



"Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation otj. ,iing a 



man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his fa< shall 



be changed." ECCLESIASTES vm. 



of the mind within, let us observe it with anxious regard ; and whether we are 

 moved to complaint by the existence of supposed or real wrongs, let the 

 Indication of the coming tear be held as a sacred truce to unkindly feeling, and 

 our efforts be devoted to the substitution of smiles for tears ! 



There is only one other matter to which we think it necessary to allude, before 

 we pass to the concluding section of our work. It has been said (162), that snow 

 which is white, keeps the earth warm ; that white as a colour is cool, and that 

 black absorbs heat (231). These assertions may appear to be contradictory, and, 

 taken in connection with the fact of the blackness of the skin of negroes in hot 

 climates, may at a first glance be considered unsatisfactory. They are, however, 

 perfectly reconcileable, and that too, without the slightest evasion of the real 

 bearing of the asserted facts. White snow is warm on account of Us tenure, which, 

 being woolly, forms a layer of non-conducting substance ever the surface of the 

 earth, and keeps in its warmth ; white clothing, worn as a garment consisting of 

 a thin material, is cool, because the white colour turns back the rays of the sun 

 that fall upon it. Swansdown, although white, being a non-conductor, would be 

 warm, because, though it would reflect the light and heat, it would confine and 

 accumulate the heat of the body. The black skin of the negro is a living texture, 

 and is not subject to the same laws that govern dead matter. The skin of the 

 negro is largely provided with cells which secrete a fatty matter that acts as a 

 non-conductor of the external heat, and also a much larger number of perspira- 

 tory glands than exist in the skins of Europeans. The perspiration cools the 

 blood, and carries off the internal heat, while the oily matter gives a shiuing 

 surface to the skin, and reflects the heat, to which the fatty matter presents 

 itself as a non-conducter. We see, therefore, that there are two express provi- 

 sions for the cooling of the negroes' skin, independent of the colour. The skin of 

 the Esquimaux who inhabits a cold country is white, though it might be supposed 

 that a black skin would best conduce to the warmth of his body. But the 

 Esquimaux has, underneath his skin, a thick coating of fat, by which the 

 internal heat of the body is prevented from escaping. 



This resume of the subjects embodied in the form of question and answer in 

 the previous pages, will serve to impress the more important truths upon the 

 mind of the reader, while it has enabled us to fill up many omissions necessi- 

 tated by the arbitrary form of catechetical composition. 



